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Throughout Pokemon history, there have been a select few Pokemon that can learn 'suicide moves' i.e Explosion/Self-Destruct and, up to some extent, Destiny Bond. Personally, I've always found these moves to be quite useless in-game. Sure, they are ridiculously powerful, but for me it was never really worth losing a Pokemon in the team just to deliver one move. I was just wondering if anyone had opinions on these moves, especially if you think they are useful and which Pokemon of yours use them.

If one of my Pokemon knew the move, and I knew it would be going down the next turn, I would use it in order to make serious damage to the other Pokemon. Like that he won't be going down without doing barely anything.

I can see the strategic advantage in it- you can sit out there and sweep until near death, and you maintain an offensive threat until the very end. They also tend to be very powerful. They also pair well with the electric type, which has so few weaknesses.

That being said, I would never use them. This will sound dumb, but I don't treat my pokemon like that, I never push them to the point of fainting and I try to avoid them getting knocked out whenever possible. I want them to have max happiness and I honestly kind of agree with N, I don't see the point in having the pokemon battling. I want mine to be the strongest and I want to capture them all, don't get me wrong, I just realize that in a fight between trainers one of their sets of pokemon will come out losing happiness, just to prove their pokemon was stronger. I wish there was an option to "withdraw" your pokemon, instead of being forced to fight to the point of fainting.

I've rarely found myself using them, but I can understand using something like Explosion when your Pokemon is on the brink of fainting- although, that does leave you with one less move slot during the rest of a battle. And I guess it's better to go out with a bang (literally) than a fizzle.

Suicide moves aren't useful in-game, but there are some that benefit you, like Healing Wish/Lunar Dance (which fully restores the HP and status of the Pokémon sent out next). Final Gambit works well with Pokémon that have high HP and Memento gives a teammate a free setup by severely weakening the opponent.

I have never once used a suicide move as a part of battle strategy. When I was training a Bagon in Emerald, I took it to Victory Road with an EXP Share and had a Graveler that knew Self-Destruct. I would use it to take out some of the really strong Victory Road pokemon, but when it fainted, my Bagon got tons of EXP. That's the only time I'll ever use that. I HATE when my pokemon faint, I treat them like gold and I want them to have max happiness just because I feel it reflects on my skills as a trainer.

I greatly dislike using suicidal moves to destroy an opponent however great the effects may be for my team. I mean, what's the use of KO-ing a Pokemon in-game but lose the precious experience points that could make a whole world of difference? It'll be much worth it taking down the opponent scathed but alive in my opinion. I also dislike having any of my Pokemon faint during battle; keeping my whole team up and running in all circumstances is one of my main must-do's.

In some cases, those explosive self-defeating moves don't entirely take down Pokemon with huge defensive stats though. I've experienced it before. This makes these moves all the more unreliable.

In competitive battling however, I guess these types of moves are somewhat excusable, given the benefits for the team that could either make a winning or a losing match. I personally won't be using those moves, though. The more Pokemon, the better!

The only Pokemon I have with moves like that are my Electrode (obviously) and my Lapras.

There okay, I just don't like using them much. When I make teams I tend to make them so they're good at battling on their own (except in XD which then I make them so they're good in double battles) and moves like that don't really work.

Moves like this are something I treat like a last resort. Explosion and Selfdestruct are particularly notable in the way that it can be sometimes used to take out something extremely bulky and is mowing through your team, provided you can survive to use the move. So yes, this strategy isn't always viable.

However since the recent generations we've seen new types of suicide moves that have beneficial effects. Healing Wish could bring you out of the woods especially in a situation where you benched a powerful pokemon with a few HP because they brought out it's counter and have dealt with that already and are getting destroyed by yet another. But that's just a specific scenario so the strategy still isn't highly viable.

Moves like Destiny Bond are good, especially if they throw out something that can take you out, you can take it out and possibly prevent it from sweeping any other team members, so that's actually a fair trade off in a battle. That makes this move the most viable out of all of the suicide moves. Because at least it guarantees that if they knock you out that turn, then you will be able to take them out with you and possibly prevent it from mowing your team down.

I only use them when battling my friends and my pokemon is about to faint. I do not really like to use the suicide move because I do not like fainting my own pokemon in order to faint the opponent pokemon.

I never really liked suicide moves. Sure, they're really powerful and what not, but I'd rather my team stay as intact as possible at the end of each battle. When a Pokémon I have is trying to learn such a move, I always tell it not to and abandon learning such a move.

Location: Twilight Dimension; waiting for one day, become the Heralted God...

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Explosion was my most-used Suicide move. During Generation 4, I had a dedicated team to that, called the Al-Qaeda team. Every single member in it knew Explosion and was capable of decimating teams. Every Pokémon first tried to take down a foe by normal means, and once done, the next Pokémon would be screwed.

Unfortunately, Explosion's power drop in Gen 5 made the strategy useless. I miss my team...

The moves are good if your Pokemon is fast and if its HP is red or yellow. I was never used to have Pokemons with this moves because the Pokemons that learns those moves usually aren't in my team. I could say that Electrode is the best suicide Pokemon to use, due its Speed allowing it to suicide first before being knocked out.

What really happens when a pokémon uses a suicide move? In the anime or in other instances than the games, I mean. Do they die? Or to they merely faint from using so much energy?

I hope they faint, even though a Koffing or Voltorb exploding sure sounds like they would crack open and... Ugh, not nice to think about.

I think in the manga, there were Voltorb or something who actually exploded themselves for their trainer. I might remember wrong though. I think Destiny bond was used too in the manga, and the pokémon there merely fainted. So "suicide move" is a bit too brutal term imo xD

I agree. It isn't suicide per se, the Pokémon merely faints, not dies. I've never found use for the moves in-game though since I usually opt for more powerful moves that does not cost the HP of the user.

Yeah, in the manga it's kinda suggested in FRLG arc that Forretress using Explosion die...but in the games its not suicide, just self-KOing. I use Explosion on my Metagross in the Battle Frontier - if I'm against something I could KO with either Explosion or Meteor Mash, and I'm faster than it but it can KO me, I explode. Likewise, if a mutual 2HKO is a possibility from other moves, and I'm outpaced, I explode.

Yeah, I've never wanted to use them in the games, I just laugh at the NPC opponents who use it at the stupidest of times >.< Never wanted to use it in a RP either, because it would be pretty devastating there.

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